The present invention relates to a mobile system and method for extending the fuel oil in automotive service stations and other establishments by enhancement with waste oils.
In a typical service station, waste oils drained from the crank cases of automotive vehicles are collected in tanks. Periodically, these tanks are emptied by collection companies. As the service station has no use for this waste oil product and local laws typically bar the disposal of this product through normal sewage channels (i.e., drains), the removal of this product by a collection company is in effect a service performed for the benefit of the service station owner. One result of this situation is that the service station owner receives very little in the way of compensation for the removal of the waste crank case oil.
Once the waste oil is removed it may be taken to a plant where it is reprocessed to be used as a lubricating oil. Such systems are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,318,086, 3,620,967 and 3,625,881. Similar efforts have been devised to provide in situ reprocessing using portable equipment and a typical arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,962,463.
In recent years rapid increase in the prices of fossil, especially liquid, fuels have generated interest in new ways of extending the usefulness of such fuels. One way is a portable unit for recovering the useful crude oil from the bottom settlings and water in the bottom of crude oil storage tanks.